The Concept2 RowErg: The One Machine Worth Actually Investing In
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Most home gym advice is about doing more with less — the folding dumbbells, the £30 bands, the wall-mounted ladder that tucks away by Monday morning. This one is different. Every so often it's worth asking: if you were only going to buy one serious piece of equipment, spend properly, and keep it for a decade — what would it be?
For a growing number of our readers, the answer keeps coming back to the same machine: the Concept2 RowErg.
Why This One Keeps Coming Up
It's not new, and it's not flashy. Concept2 has been making this rower for over 30 years, and it's the same design used in gyms, boutique studios and Olympic training centres. There's no subscription, no screen trying to sell you a class, no proprietary app lock-in. Just a flywheel, a chain, and a monitor that tells you exactly what you did.
That's precisely why it's earned a kind of quiet cult status — 10,898 UK ratings and counting, averaging 4.8 stars, with an Amazon's Choice badge that's held for years, not weeks. When we looked into what a genuinely “buy it once” rowing machine looks like, this was the one every serious review, every gym owner, and every long-time rower kept pointing back to.
What You're Actually Getting
Air resistance with a spiral damper — the harder you pull, the more resistance you feel, and you can dial the damper to change the character of the stroke.
The PM5 Performance Monitor — a proper backlit display tracking distance, pace, calories and watts, with Bluetooth and ANT+ for wireless heart rate monitoring. It pairs with Concept2's free ErgData app, so every session logs itself.
Aluminium frame, backed by a proper warranty — 5 years on the frame, 2 years on everything else (monitor included) — the kind of coverage that matters when you're spending four figures.
Adjustable footrests and an ergonomic handle with a slight bend, designed to fit a wide range of heights and shoe sizes.
227kg maximum user weight, so it's genuinely built for anyone in the household to use.
Two sizes are available: Standard (seat height ~36cm, £990) and Tall, which makes getting on and off noticeably easier if you're over six foot (£1,150).
The Bit That Actually Matters for a Flat: Storage
This is the detail most reviews skip past, and it's the one that makes or breaks whether this machine belongs in a London flat rather than a garage.
The RowErg splits into two pieces via a quick-release mechanism — no tools required. One half has caster wheels built in, so once it's apart, it rolls into a corner or against a wall in seconds. Split down, it needs roughly 64cm × 84cm of floor space and stands about 137cm tall — closer to a large suitcase than gym equipment. Several UK owners specifically mention keeping it beside the sofa or wheeling it into a hallway between sessions, which says more about its real-world footprint than any spec sheet does.
Assembled, the frame itself is 2.44 metres long, but you'll want roughly 2.7 metres of clear floor space to row comfortably — the sliding seat and your own body position need room at either end. This isn't a machine you can leave permanently unfolded in most flats, which is exactly why the quick-split design matters.
One practical note for flat living: the air flywheel generates a rhythmic whoosh that matches your stroke. It's not deafening, but it's not silent either — worth weighing up if you have thin walls, a sleeping partner, or early-morning sessions in mind. A rubber mat underneath helps dampen vibration, and most owners describe the sound as mechanical and predictable rather than intrusive.
What Owners Actually Say
The recurring themes across UK reviews are consistent: the build quality feels disproportionate to anything else in the room, assembly is straightforward (most people manage it solo in 20–30 minutes with the included tools), and the PM5's data — paired with the app — is what keeps people coming back to it rather than letting it gather dust. More than one reviewer specifically called out how much smoother and quieter it feels compared with cheaper rowers they'd tried first.
The most common gripe is the seat becoming uncomfortable on longer sessions — easily solved with a seat cushion, which is a sub-£20 add-on if it turns out to matter to you.
Is It Worth It?
At £990–£1,150, this is not an impulse buy, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. But the maths is worth doing: if you're paying £50–£70 a month for gym access mainly to use a rower, the RowErg pays for itself in roughly 18–24 months. And unlike a gym membership, it holds its value unusually well on the secondhand market if you ever decide to sell — build quality this consistent tends to reassure second-hand buyers in a way cheaper machines don't.
If you want equipment that disappears into a corner between sessions, doesn't feel like a compromise, and comes with three decades of the same design proving itself, this is the one we'd point you to.
Prices correct at time of writing and subject to change. Always check the current price on Amazon before purchasing.
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